`User Fees` May Rise Despite Tax

January 28, 1986|By William Presecky.

Even if the Du Page County Board adopts a proposed quarter-cent countywide sales tax, a completely revised schedule of so-called ``user fees`` may have to be imposed if the county wants to retain its coveted AAA bond rating, County Board chairman Jack Knuepfer (R., Elmhurst) said Monday.

Knuepfer said he will propose increasing many of the county`s license and service fees in 1987 as a way of maintaining the county`s cash flow position without increasing real estate taxes.

According to Knuepfer, the county`s ability to operate without incurring debt by selling tax anticipation warrants, a practice followed by many taxing bodies to raise cash while waiting for real estate tax receipts, has played a key role in Du Page County`s ability to retain favor with New York bond-rating agencies.

Knuepfer said an increase in user fees will be proposed after the county board comes to grips with a proposal to levy a .25 percent countywide sales tax beginning July 1.

A vote on the proposed tax could come as soon as Feb. 11.

Knuepfer will give a final ``long-range budget presentation`` outlining what he sees as the county`s potential fiscal woes for 1987 when he meets next Monday with the Finance Committee of the county board.

``One of the things I have been charged with is not keeping people informed,`` Knuepfer said when questioned about what has become an almost weekly ritual for the board chairman.

``What I`ve tried to do this January is tell the board all of the problems we may run into,`` Knuepfer said.

Despite having backpedaled considerably from a projection he made last summer that the adoption of a countywide sales tax would substantially relieve the county`s dependency on property tax, Knuepfer continued to hold fast to the prospect of at least some real estate tax relief in 1987.

``There will be a reduction (in real estate taxes) but I can`t tell you how much,`` Knuepfer said. He said adoption of higher fees for judiciary and law enforcement services would increase the chances for a real estate tax break.